Foulston Siefkin Lecture, 2014: Steven J. Eagle

Washburn University School of Lawand the Washburn Law Journalproudly present the37th Annual Foulston Siefkin Lecture

Steven J. EagleProfessor of LawGeorge Mason University School of Law

"How Government Regulation Becomes Private Property"

Friday – March 7, 201412:10-1:10 p.m. – Room 114

With his work in regulatory takings and other aspects of property law, Professor of Law Steven J. Eagle plays an important role in the ongoing dialogue among American legal scholars, lawyers, and judges on the proper interpretation of property rights in the Constitution.

Eagle is a professor of law at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia, where he teaches property and land use planning law. His treatise Regulatory Takings (5th ed., 2012, Lexis Publishing) is a comprehensive analysis of private property rights and their regulation and appropriation by government. Professor Eagle also is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and book chapters on the nature of property rights and land use regulation. He lectures extensively on these topics.

Professor Eagle, a graduate of Yale Law School, is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He currently is at work on Private Landownership and Government Regulation in Contemporary America, a book that applies current social science scholarship to regulatory issues.

In his lecture at Washburn University School of Law, Professor Eagle will argue that government's police power is abused to create private property for selected beneficiaries, and that this subversion serves neither the public interest nor free markets. Among the results of rent seeking by private actors and public officials are anticompetitive regulation, unnecessary subsidies to select businesses, and excessive condemnation for urban redevelopment. Heightened judicial scrutiny of regulatory transfers is needed to alleviate these problems.

has sponsored the Foulston Siefkin Lecture since 1978 to enrich thequality of education at Washburn University School of Law.Articles derived from the lectures are published bythe Washburn Law Journal.